


In Which A Young Girl Comes To Understand The Joys and Changes of Womanhood In Some Sense

by kyuukurochan



Series: Eldritch Horror [2]
Category: Homestuck
Genre: Angst, Gen, Graphic descriptions, Grimdark, Horror, Horrorterrors - Freeform, If you cannot do vomiting do not read, Mild Gore, Ooze, References to Alcohol Abuse/Alcoholism, Sadstuck, Underage Drinking, Vomiting, it's not gore as in blood, kinda disgusting, slight Rosemary
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2013-06-29
Updated: 2013-06-29
Packaged: 2017-12-16 13:23:18
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,048
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/862502
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/kyuukurochan/pseuds/kyuukurochan
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>"Everyone listened, and everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness." H.P. Lovecraft-The Call of Cthulhu</p>
            </blockquote>





	In Which A Young Girl Comes To Understand The Joys and Changes of Womanhood In Some Sense

> "The aperture was black with a darkness almost material. That tenebrousness was indeed a positive quality; for it obscured such parts of the inner walls as ought to have been revealed, and actually burst forth like smoke from its aeon-long imprisonment, visibly darkening the sun as it slunk away into the shrunken and gibbous sky on flapping membraneous wings. The odour arising from the newly opened depths was intolerable, and at length the quick-eared Hawkins thought he heard a nasty, slopping sound down there. Everyone listened, and everyone was listening still when It lumbered slobberingly into sight and gropingly squeezed Its gelatinous green immensity through the black doorway into the tainted outside air of that poison city of madness."

_The Call of Cthulhu-_ H.P. Lovecraft

* * *

Outside of the respiteblock that you'd come to know and love in the past year, there was heart-wrenching wretching. Your eyes flicked up from the page you studied to your door, and you debating stepping out and offering aid. A soft thud echoed outside, but it didn't sound heavy enough to be a body. You  ~~needed to~~  should go and check on her, but after the debacle earlier today involving the alchemiter and her ectobiological brother, you were just about at wit's end. Maybe Karkat was sometimes shouting the truth-you shouldn't be the one to fix every single problem. Sometimes things were just out of your control, and it would not behoove you to waste much more effort on someone who did not wish to change. 

Many of the others on both this meteor and in this damnable game would often depend on you for your kind patience in various situations, but this was not one that you assumed required immediate attention. If she needed you, she was close enough to knock. 

Your name is Kanaya Maryam and you detested everything.

* * *

Your name is Rose Lalonde and you detested everything.  

You had just gone to take a quick swig of the infernal liquid when it all started.

That day you had just taken to creating what your mother had called a black cherry and rose-a martini with a bitter taste of cherry raspberry vodka aftertaste. It was a favorite of hers after the cotton candy martini concoction that you remember her creating on your sixth birthday as a tribute to someone long since gone, you remember her remarking. Your ectobiological brother, having heard the story of the martini before, took it upon himself to finally step in to your supposed "problem", and cause a scene.

You were embarrassed, of course, but moreso that he'd picked a time for a good majority of eyes to be present in the common block to regard both you and him. Each set of eyes that grazed over you two had a mixture of pity, sadness, and humiliation. Whether for you, him, or themselves, you could not quite place.

After you'd finally absconded from the scene, you'd picked a secluded area to finally take solace in the peace and quiet and the drink you'd made. You felt a sense of joy at your initiative to replicate something that even when you were a child, you regarded as sophisticated and classy, compared to whatever else your mother created. Usually it had been drinking straight from the bottle, depending on how furiously she'd been drinking at that point. You didn't want to remember those moments. 

It was almost a year now since you had found your mother, you suddenly realized. Your blood boiled as you thought about it, but you repressed your desires to return to grimdark. You had been doing so well. And there was not much you could attempt in your current predicament as it were, and communication was not exactly the most articulate.

Instead, you chose to ignore it as you remembered her smashing cherries for this drink in your kitchen that you'd spied in on from the living room. In an act of passive-aggression, she'd requested you didn't eat any of the cherries in the fridge, so you got an entire bowl of them and left her two. As it turned out, she'd only needed one, and you made a point of making sure she used both of them.

"Rooosieeeee, if you wanted cherries you should have told me to buy more you know. You told me before that you didn't even like cherries", her voice dripping with a sweet molasses-like tone; she shook the steel canister and turned to look into the living room, catching your eye. You crossed your arms, setting down your knitting in your lap. 

"Oh mother dearest, I didn't want to trouble you to change dietary preferences for my sake, but I simply cannot eat anymore strawberries for fear of becoming ill, and you know I must have a helping of fruit each day to grow up as per the nutritional standard." She let out a loud, resounding laugh, and strained the drink into one of the flutes and topping off with some champagne. 

"I'll remember that Rosie, did you want this other cherry then? I don't think all of the other cherries was a full serving, and I don't need this other cherry-"

"Oh no, mother, I insist, please use the last one." She smiled sweetly and sliced into the last ripe cherry, placing it on the rim of the glass as a garnish, leaving it on the side of the glass in the sink for a week before it finally rotted and fell off. She'd then buried it in the front yard, and the pit actually sprouted and you both had fresh cherries each summer that she took care in cultivating and tending. She won that round, fair and square.

You were drawn from your memories when a door was thrown open near you, and Kanaya emerged from the common room. She peered at you with narrow eyes, and sighed at you. 

"Rose, if I were not mistaken, I would almost declare that you were avoiding us after the incident earlier. I can assure you, that Dave feels that he needs to apologize for the earlier-"

"Kanaya, if you do not mind, I'd rather choose to not speak with Dave as of this moment. It doesn't seem to be a wholehearted endeavor that I need to pursue at this moment." You sipped on the cocktail before patting the ground next to you. Kanaya regarded it for a moment before smoothing out her skirt under her bottom and gracefully planting herself next to you. 

"Rose, if I may-"

"You may proceed." She was taken aback for a moment before continuing. 

"Rose, if I may, it seems as though the distance between you and Dave has slowly staggered to what Karkat and Terezi are currently experiencing. Is there a predicament that I was not previously aware of?" You finished the drink as she spoke, and then set it down on the floor with an elegant tink before folding your hands in your lap. 

"There is not, Kanaya. The possibility of there being one didn't even exist before you brought it up." Kanaya chewed on her bottom lip. You raised an eyebrow at her, the silence that was born after your comment extending. After about a minute or so, she finally stood up and just walked away, leaving you wide eyed and mouth slightly ajar. You racked your mind, replaying the conversation, searching for anything rude that you might have spewed in your slightly inebriated mindset. There was nothing that you could possibly said that would create this tension, if you could even call it that. You would have rather liked to speak now before you continued drinking, and you debated following her and stopping for the night so that you two may speak without any handicaps. The more you remembered her expression however, the less you wanted to pursue, and the more you wanted to drink. 

A wise man once said that drinking didn't fix the problem, but merely enabled you to forget it.

A few hours later, the hallway was littered with martini glasses, parts of a shaker, and random components of a couple nice fruity drinks. A warm feeling was growing in the pit of your stomach, and you smiled warmly at the feeling. Opening your mouth, you downed a last bit, the warm starting at the back of your throat and traveling down, creating this wonderful sensation that would otherwise make your skin crawl. Instead, you were numb to all feeling and a buzzing in your brain was making your forehead itch. You absentmindedly rubbed at it, before rubbing at your eyes. You were not certain as to how tipsy you were, so you figured you needed someone to tell you. Normally when your mother would "knock a few of these back", she was never truly drunk to the point of incapacitatition like when she would partake in other drinks straight from bottles. You drank most likely less than her and you knew you were not drunk, but you needed to be certain of this. Yes, that sounded like a good idea. Kanaya would humor you, and then hold you tightly and tell you how stupid you were as usual, but all you wanted was to be held right now. Yes, that sounded good. 

Why were you drinking again?

You pushed some of the bottles out of your way and started to crawl down the hallway towards the sleeping blocks, sliding your hands and knees forwards. You tried to pick up your hands for more distance, but your chin almost met a bottle before you caught yourself. Sliding would have to do for now. 

You made it about halfway down the hall until you got close enough to the wall to stabilize yourself long enough to pull yourself to your feet. Grasping the wall for dear life, you made it to Kanaya's door before pounding your palm on it. 

"KANAYA I GOTTA TELL YOU SOMETHING", you think you cooed, but you might have also scream-shouted. You were not too certain. There was a muffled voice inside, and you pressed your ear to listen. Something about a man with Doritos? Dave? Was he in there? 

You pushed away from the door and caught your balance, resuming the pounding. "KANAYA IS THAT DAVE LET ME IN!"

There was a sudden slam on the door from the other side and you tumbled backwards, landing on the ground. You regarded the door in stunned silence, before whirling around in that spot, and glaring at the wall. If she wanted to fight, you two would fight! 

But your anger quickly subsided when you felt a slight tingle in your stomach. You coughed a bit as the warmth in your stomach turned to cold, but not temperature cold. Desolation, sadness, and lonely sort of cold that made your skin crawl, and the hairs on the back of your neck stand straight up. You reached up to push your bangs under the headband on your head, but quickly you lurched forward, your throat constricting pushing something -bile?- forward into your mouth. 

But nothing came out, and you leaned forward on your elbows, kneeling forward as your eyes bulged. The cold swept over you again, and finally you felt this -gooey sensation?- start to creep up your throat, until everything was well lubricated, and pooling all over the inside of your mouth. You drooled a little onto the stone floor, the taste horrifyingly bitter and acidic. The smell was absolutely terrible, and made your stomach turn, and your mind was reeling at the viscous clear liquid you'd just spat up. You leaned in closer, careful not to inhale the smell, when your head went forward again, a grey sort of color projecting forward this time, onto the wall and the floor.

Breathing heavy, the gelatinous ooze slipped down the wall slowly, sticking. You tried to move your tongue to push the substance out, but then you heaved a few more times in succession, causing your eyes to water until you finally felt a lump in your throat. But it didn't feel like a normal feeling at all...

You realized it was caught and your breathing hitched, and you struggled to catch your breath. You attempted to work your throat to loosen it up, your hands curling into fists and knuckles turning white. You reached a hand up and tugged at the base of your neck, tearing your hood down in a swift motion, when finally with a great push, the blockage cleared and smashed into the wall, before slopping to the ground. The force bashed your forehead into the wall, and you groaned, trying to catch your breath in shaky rattles.

Peering down, your eyes rested on this purple and black mass that pooled a thick, black film on the ground, seeping into your tights. You couldn't tell what it was, but it appeared to be...

_moving?_

You shoved back from the wall as another sensation occurred again, and this time the next one came out easier, longer and more solid. You rubbed at your throat, pushing the skin of your neck up as a third spewed forth, then another, then another, then another. You lost count after about eight of these disgusting blobs, all of varying color, size, and shape, morphing and combining with one another in a puddle on the floor. 

A bead of sweat dripped off your nose when it finally stalled long enough to catch your breath for a brief moment. You removed your shaking hand from your throat, gently placing it on your stomach. A gurgle lumbered through the air, and your eyes widened before you sat up straight, locking your hands together in a large, balled fist. With a tremendous force, you struck straight at your stomach and you keeled over, a thick black liquid shooting up your throat and out, like a fire hose released of the thousands of gallons of pressure. You moved a hand to steady you on the wall, wiping your brow with the other. 

Shuddering, you slowly raised your face to the ceiling, closing your eyes as more tears leaked at the corners. Even your tears felt thick and congealed.

"ph'nglui mglw'nafh n'ghft hrii wgah'nagl fhtagn," you finally croaked, your eyes fluttering open. There was no salvation light, no person, no sudden hole in the roof that would tear you from this horrible existence and into the safety of warm arms and a nice drink.

Your name is Rose Lalonde and there was only a cold, dark ceiling as your eyes rolled in the back of your head and you collapsed on the ground. 

* * *

Your name is Kanaya Maryam and there was only a cold, dark ceiling as your eyes rolled at the sound of a body collapsing outside your door. 

After making such a show of getting sick outside your door, you were in no mood to clean up after her, but the last thing that you wanted was a vertically challenged troll to find her and shout at her, waking you and everyone else up. After the embarrassment Rose already faced today, you wanted to at least prevent more humiliation to fall upon her, yourself, and everyone else on this rock propelling through space. 

You decided this after reading the same paragraph for the third time, and deciding that a nice rest is futile. You abandoned the book on the desk and pushed away, opening your door. 

The horror that you saw was unspeakable, and left you shocked and speechless. Was this how humans regurgitated their alcohol? No, it couldn't be. No creature could stand to drink after that liquid seeping from her mouth would come up her protein chute. There's no way. Rose was not that much of a sadist. 

You dropped to your knees and shook her a few times, her head lolling to and fro. She hiccuped and spewed the sludge on her chest and your sleeve, but she didn't awaken. 

Looking around madly, you stand back up and drag her towards your room, away from the black mass that you now realized was there without her knee in the way. It gurgled and formed air bubbles that plopped and slopped more ichor onto the ground. You were not certain what else to refer to it as, but from what Rose's literature read, it seemed to be a very astute description of it. Opening your door, you pulled out some cheap muslin fabric and swiftly covered it, dragging Rose further into your room. You positioned her carefully on her side, placing her head in your dye basin on the floor and shutting the door. 

Facing the moving fabric, you resigned yourself and gathered up the corners, pushing the mass inside and picking it up and slinging it over your shoulder. Your skin started to crawl as it twisted and contorted against your back, and you sprinted to dispose of it. 

After tossing the creature into the depths of the furthest ring, you shuffled back to your room, passing the horrifying black sludge left over. You'd get that in a second. 

You opened your door again and peeked in, spotting Rose huddled against the basin. She was muttering in a dark manner, and the grime on her outfit was badly staining your carpet. You'd deal with that later. 

You knelt next to her, moving the hair from her face and back under her headband. When she awoke, you'd have to drill her for information, but for now there was no way that you would be able to leave her alone, let alone that you didn't want to ever leave her alone again.

You felt completely guilty that you couldn't help her. You really did. You felt even worse that you didn't open the door for her. You hit your head with the side of your palm, closing your eyes tightly. You really regretted that. 

Abandoning the idea of cleaning up, you instead elected to pull her head into your lap. You placed the basin back under her chin, but she seemed to have slowed down in the time you were gone. 

Your name is Kanaya Maryam and you made a final pact that you would stay with her and protect her from whatever caused this, no matter what the cost. 

* * *

 

**Author's Note:**

> Karkat was not happy they had to clean that up in the morning.
> 
> You can find my tumblr here: http://www.kyuukurochan.tumblr.com . You can find my original picture on my art tumblr at http://www.kyuusart.tumblr.com .
> 
> Also this is my first published work on here, and I do not have any betas to read my drafts and such. If you spot anything, please let me know!
> 
> Headcannon meteor shenanigans was that Rose needed to be drunk to prevent the horrorterrors from invading her, and so Kanaya took the sole responsibility of taking care of her, and that was the reason that her and Karkat were no longer moirails. Also headcannon, Rose's drunkenness vaguely follows mine-Happy before buzz, tired during buzz, and then unlike me, extremely happy when completely smashed. Thus, the correct speech and such.


End file.
